Last updated on May 13, 2021
In May, last year, CNBC published a striking article about the trading volumes of electronic brokers. It stated that the volumes have doubled by that point, with some electronic trading solutions providers handling more than 100% rise in volumes year over year. A year on from the trading frenzy of last year, and there is no sign of retail investors slowing down anytime soon.
There are several factors giving way to this rise in trading volumes. Experts have pointed to many things, including stay-at-home orders, extra cash in hand, lack of worldly excitements, and so on. The accessibility of different trading solutions online and the chance for zero commission trading are the two other important factors, especially from the technical side of things.
What exactly are the trading solutions?
By now, you may be wondering what exactly are we referring to as trading solutions. In general, it refers to all the technical and logistical solutions needed to conduct the trading of products and services. In financial terms, it refers to the solutions facilitating the trades of financial assets and instruments like shares, bonds, ETFs, currencies, commodities, and many others.
So, what are the available solutions? It can be a charting tool, a trend analysis software, a risk analysis tool, and so on. It can even be a currency converter or a paper trading simulator. The idea is that anything that a trader may need to conduct his trade – from pre-trade analysis to post-trade regulatory compliance. It may also extend to include tools for keeping trading records.
Many of these tools are available online as a standalone program or software. But what made it even more interesting is the development of trading platforms. These advanced platforms often come with most of these individual features integrated into one place. The best platforms even go a few extra yards by offering all the related news and analysis in one scrollable news feed. It makes the experience a lot more convenient and time-saving. It can be cost-saving too if you choose your trading solution provider smartly.
Types of Trading Solutions
Even if we talk about the integrated trading platforms, there are several different types. While the platforms offer similar charting and analytic tools, they differ primarily in trading methods and executions.
Anyways, the most popular online trading solutionsare:
Advanced Trading Platforms: These are the online trading platforms accessible from anywhere and on any device. The best ones usually offer live prices, real-time news, interactive charts, automatic orders, multi-currency trading, global trading, etc. They also offer different assets and instruments in a personalised dashboard.
Automated Trading Systems: Unlike the advanced platforms that allow both manual and automated trading, the automated trading systems only allow solutions with an algorithm. They can offer a pre-packaged solution without much room for customisations. Otherwise, they can also come as robotic solutions that work under a pre-set rules. Traders can optimise the trading robots as per their trading goals and risk appetite.
